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RE: [OM] OTMyths and Legends - was A little OT pain in the butt

Subject: RE: [OM] OTMyths and Legends - was A little OT pain in the butt
From: "James N. McBride" <jnmcbr@xxxxxxx>
Date: Tue, 2 Jul 2002 12:38:05 -0600
Chris,

I'm curious as to source of this information. I've never heard of many
people dying from the accidental discharge of firearms. There were many new
people created by accidental discharge of another type. There were a lot of
firearm deaths in certain places like mining towns where there were many
single men and lots of gambling and drinking going on. There were some
notable disease epidemics but more people died from the consequences of
accidents and resulting infections. Broken legs were often fatal. Pneumonia
caused lots to die as did complications from childbirth. Poor nutrition was
often a problem. The people living in wilderness died as one would expect
from being poorly prepared for their adopted lifestyle and having virtually
no medical care.

The so-called indians or native Americans were not always friendly or
helpful. They were initially indifferent to the Europeans. Sometimes they
were very helpful and other times they were just the opposite. They were
always unpredictable. For some reason their systems did not (and still
don't) tolerate alcohol well and white men occasionally paid the price for
giving or selling them booze. The Hollywood depictions of the "old west"
were certainly not very accurate.

/jnm



-----Original Message-----
From: owner-olympus@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:owner-olympus@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx]On Behalf Of Chris Barker
Sent: Monday, July 01, 2002 11:36 AM
To: olympus@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Cc: Walt Wayman
Subject: [OM] OTMyths and Legends - was A little OT pain in the butt


I was brought up on how the West was won
by honourable immigrants battling the natives, but just in case I was
in any doubt, it has been confirmed recently (in the UK) that most of
the stories were bunkum.

The greatest danger faced by the settlers as they headed north- or
south-west was apparently death by ND (negligent discharge of a
firearm), or disease.  The locals were very friendly and helped the
travellers; the tribes depicted by the Hollywood storymakers were
nowhere near the trails taken by the settlers and the tribes who were
there only started getting nasty when their buffalo etc... were
decimated by the odd non-environmentally friendly incomer.

... I suppose we always knew, in our heart of hearts,  that Hollywood
were making it up all the time...

Get well soon

Chris
(who has known of the name and whereaboutouts of the sacroiliac nerve
for a while)



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